After the insane night at the Sambadrome, we woke up in the afternoon in time for our surfing lessons! We were excited but I was nervous just because the waves are so big here. I also asked for a wet suit because I thought the water was too cold when I dipped my feet in but actually it wasn't at all. The guys loaded up all the boards into their funky van and told us to walk up to the beach, the same beach we went to yesterday. I was hoping it was just to wait for them since I didn't think those waves were small at all, but no, we were going to learn there. There weren't any surfers in the water that day because the waves were "too small" apparently.
Anyway, our instructions were exactly one minute long, just how to stand on the board and how to Eskimo roll when a wave is breaking on you. That's it, now run in. Getting through the first wave was pretty hard but after that it was much better. You use your arms a lot as your feet are on the board and have to paddle really hard and fast. As we got deep enough, the was a good wave coming that Bernie tried but fell off and was dragged almost all the way to the shore. I kept falling off the board just trying to do the jump-stand. Every time I caught a wave I'd either not stand in time, or not paddle hard enough so I'd miss it. It was very tiring. Then a couple of huge waves broke over us and I wasn't used to the size and weight of my board so my Eskimo rolls were a complete fail and I just kept drinking water and getting dragged by my board like a rag doll. By this point I realised I couldn't see Bernie nor our English speaking instructor which was worrying. Turns out Bernie got pretty wiped out by a couple of waves and went to the beach to rest.
When the instructor came back, I tried to jump stand on my board many many times and ended up with bleeding knees and elbows because I kept falling but I finally managed to do it, though not on a wave. I tried a few more more waves for another 45 minutes but kept falling. It was very frustrating because it's so much harder than I expected and so so tiring as you have to keep paddling as the waves keep pushing you back and forth. Finally another few huge waves broke over us and I was so tired and contstantly had water dripping from my nose that I also decided to pack it up and rest with Bernie who didn't come back in, he was too knackered.
The funny thing is that actually getting to the shore is super hard. The point where the waves break closest to the shore is where the strength is the most and getting caught in that break means spinning around like crazy in the water. So I understood now why the instructor escorted Bernie to the beach earlier. It took me a few minutes and then when I was standing at knee deep water, a wave knocked me down completely and back in I went. When I was finally out of the water, I collapsed in exhaustion. I was quite disappointed in my performance, I don't think I tried hard enough and the fear of falling off the board as the wave broke was too scary. Many times, even when I was riding it perfectly and poised for a great ride, I wouldn't stand up when I needed to.
All in all it was an experience, I thought I'd be a natural surfer but boy was I wrong! We both also realised that when we get back to London, we need to go to the gym and work on our stamina and fitness. By the time we were back in the hostel, we were exhausted from paddling, going under even carrying the boards home on our heads for the one minute!
So surfing =1, Bernadine=0
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